If you’ve never played Star Ocean 3 before, the heroes discover that they aren’t originally real. That sounds odd, but bear with me. It’s been a while since I’ve played the game, but I think I got the basics down. The character you control and his friends are just simulations in a game. Nevertheless, this simulation has attained consciousness and thus become real. The creator of the game tries to delete the game, but this fails because… reasons. Yes, reasons.
One theory is that everyone within the game — despite not being “originally real” — used their sheer willpower to avoid being deleted. But hey, this isn’t a post about Star Ocean 3. This is a post about the latest episode of Shichisei no Subaru, which has a plot that is somehow even crazier than what I just outlined above. As always, we’ll start from the beginning (for the most part).
— After the OP, Haruto wakes up in an alternate timeline. Yes, literally an alternate timeline. In this timeline, Asahi didn’t get a game over six years ago. Instead, Haruto got the game over. Instead of dying in real life, however, he went into a coma for six years?
— How did he end up in a different timeline, you ask? Don’t worry, it’ll be explained in due time. Whether or not you’ll like the explanation is another matter.
— And because Asahi never died, there was never a Re’Union. Hm.
— That night, Elicia comes to visit Haruto. Yeah, that’s right. Elicia from the game projects herself into the real world and magically appears inside Haruto’s hospital room. There’s Elicia, the player and there’s Elicia, the avatar. I believe this is Elicia, the avatar… from the other timeline? God, who fucking knows…
— She proceeds to drop the biggest plot bomb: Senses can be used in reality. Yes, that’s right. Haruto’s crazy fighting ability? He could potentially use it in reality. Satsuki’s connection with the elemental powers? She could potentially use it in reality. The brain is apparently an amazing thing! That’s it. That’s all the explanation we get. The brain is fucky, yo.
— The point is that we’re here because of Asahi. The girl’s Prophet Art is the greatest Sense, and it has the ability to literally rewrite… all of history, apparently. In order to protect Haruto from getting a game over in last week’s episode, she alllllllll the way back to that day six years ago. She then chose a future in which Haruto had gotten a game over back then as opposed to now. But what’s the difference? Would he have died in real life as well if she had allowed him to game over from last week’s events? The episode doesn’t really explain this part.
— So Union and Re’Union look and feel like games, but they’re really just a training ground crafted by Gnosis to try and coax out someone’s latent potential for the ultimate Prophet Art. That certain someone is, of course, Asahi.
— Anyways, Elicia’s ability to stay in this world conveniently weakens right before Haruto can asks her any questions.
— The next day, Asahi comes to see Haruto again. I’m not sure how this angle works with this angle, but hey, let’s just blame this weird discrepancy on the brain!
— Anyways, our hero proceeds to tell Asahi that he’ll always protect her and all that sappy nonsense. Basically, he wants to reject this timeline and give the original one another chance. All of a sudden, everything quickly unravels until we’re right before the very moment that Haruto is stabbed. This time, he is able to defend himself. I… sigh, whatever. I’ve had to deal with enough nonsense today. I don’t even wanna dig into this show’s mess of a plot twist.
— Haruto proceeds to accuse Clive of being an imposter. The real Clive might be a bit of an enigma, but he would never betray his friends in Subaru. Yeah, yeah, ’cause Subaru is the best, Subaru is the bee’s knees, Subaru is the best thing since sliced bread.
— As a result, the bad guy reveals himself. Not the bad guy, mind you. Just one of them. He’s also generically named Simon.
— Simon then hops onto his sea serpent which has awaken. He then launches an attack that our trio cannot defend against. At some point, he snatches Satsuki and threatens to end her life. This is because Asahi doesn’t have full control over her Prophet Art. Like in every anime series ever, any type of stress will awaken her true powers, and this is exactly what Simon is aiming for.
— ‘Cause if you think about it, Asahi’s Sense is pretty godly. She can basically shape the world to her very whims. In fact, you can argue that she already has. Thanks to her and her alone, Subaru has risen to the very top despite having only six members. Or is it seven? Oh ho ho, we’ll get to that in a bit. The point is that Asahi is already kinda tailoring the world to her desires. She just has childish, innocent desires that revolve around her and her friends having fun. Gnosis, on the other hand, probably wants trite nonsense like world domination.
— Asahi’s about to activate her Prophet Art when daggers rain from the sky and free Satsuki from the villain’s stranglehold. Our trio looks up to see the pirate lady from last week’s episode. But it ain’t just any pirate lady! It’s the real Clive! Ah yes, Clive is a shapeshifter, so he has been disguising himself as a pirate lady this entire time. Why? ‘Cause he likes to use his own teammates as bait to lure out the bad guys. But at the end of the day, he would never betray his friends.
— One question, though: if Clive was watching this entire time, why didn’t he save Haruto from being stabbed in the back? Why did he only swoop in to save Satsuki? We’ll probably never get the answer to this question.
— Anyways, the action that follows is pretty perfunctory (and poorly animated), so let’s just skip to the end. With their combined efforts, our quartet pins the sea serpent down. Haruto then somehow unleashes an attack that simultaneously removes his sword from the sea serpent’s head and defeats the bad guy at the same time. This is why I don’t want to go over the action. The flow of it is just plain bad.
— In the aftermath, Clive hands Asahi yet another red shard. With this one, we can see that Elicia was the one who broke into Gnosis’s stronghold and rescued Asahi. She then locked Asahi’s Prophet Art away by shattering a certain red gem? And recovering these shards will bring back Asahi’s memory?
— That’s not all, folks. Not only does Elicia have a ring from Subaru, but the actual player behind the avatar has a ring as well. So the show’s title translates to “Subaru of the Seven Stars.” The show’s English title is “Seven Senses of the Re’Union.” Up until now, we’ve been led to believe that there are only six members in Subaru, but it looks like Elicia is the hidden seventh one. Maybe she somehow erased herself from their memories or something.
— At this point, however, I’m all plot twisted out, so this is where I’m going to end the post. See you guys next week for more crazy nonsense, I guess.
— Everything feels terribly rushed in this anime. The plot twist itself is not inherently bad, but it’s kinda ridiculous how Haruto returned from the other world in less than half an episode. Also, the fact that Senses can be used in the real world should be mindblowing, but the way it’s revealed is so flat and uninteresting. All we have is Elicia droning on and on to Haruto in a room.